Reiki

[Shimmerchasm]

Good afternoon everyone!
So last weekend I was attuned to Reiki Level 1. (Basically attunement is an initian ceremony performed by a reiki master that allows the student to tap into the reiki energy and begin practicing.)
Are there any other reiki practitioners here?
So far it is definitely changing my life for the better. It is said that after an attunement you go through a 21 day cleansing and healing process. So far I've had profound moments of clarity and a sense of intense intuitive knowing about things that never entered my mind before. I'm also able to clearly identify the issues I have that are holding me back from building the life I want for myself. It's only been 4 days but it's intense so far!
anyway, I'd love to hear other people's experiences with reiki.

 

[Foreigner]

I did all three levels of reiki and became a master, only to discover that (for me) it was mostly smoke and mirrors. There may be something to the actual reiki lineage still functioning within Japan, but the western adaptation is mainly koolaid I'm afraid. That's not to say that nothing is happening when you channel your intention compassionately when you're doing energy work on someone. Prayer and intention are powerful. I just mean... the money racket of reiki courses is a little unfortunate, and there are so many watered down adaptations that discerning the lineage within the western world is rather difficult. The symbols that they use from level II onward, for example, are extremely inconsistent across methodologies. It's important with any kind of lineage work to maintain consistency because the resonance of that consistency is stored as power within the ether. It's why icons like Jesus have so much power... they've had thousands of years of billions of people focusing positive intention on them. But with reiki, the symbology is inconsistent, so I don't feel it's as powerful as a tool.

I prefer hands on healing via the daoist qi gong method. The movement of qi is tangibly felt by both practitioner and patient. The hands become extremely hot via the psychic fire, and it can unblock even the most extreme cases of stagnation (such as cancer). Some reiki practitioners are able to take it to this level, but it's because they already have innate talent. Most people have to train for at least several years in qi gong before they can channel that kind of energy from the ether.

I disagree with the majority of reiki practitioners who seem to believe that simply placing your hands on someone activates "reiki". You need to at least have a basic grasp of the kundalini experience, otherwise you're just channeling your own vitality into the person; and with most practitioners I came across, they had muddy energy that they had no business transmitting to others. For this reason I rarely let energy workers work on me. They have no concept of energetic hygiene, personal boundaries, or proper containment. They just act like they're powerful because they got "attuned". The reality is that it takes years of dedicated, disciplined work to become really effective at it, even if you have raw talent.

My biggest pet peeve with new agers is that they're seeking power and special abilities but with no desire to put in the discipline to achieve it, so they invent convoluted systems and initiations to convince themselves that they already have power. Then they go fucking up other people's energy with their mundane ideas that have no basis in reality. Then you have the scientists on the flipside who try to convince the world that energy work isn't real. The truth is in between. Energy work is real, but there's also a real methodology for doing it properly that has been tried and tested for a very, very long time. Why invent the wheel with all this koolaid when you can just look into pre-existing lineages who actually know what they're doing?

 

[Shimmerchasm]

I appreciate your response, Foreigner. I am not as experienced with reiki as you are but I do feel that i was called to it. Personally, it is having a profoundly positive effect on my life in such a short time. A friend of mine, who did not believe in reiki at all, went for a session anyway. This was before my attunement. I sort of dragged her along with me, she wasn't really into it but I guess curious enough to try it. She cried quite a bit afterwards. She had been through a lot of loss and trauma in the previous year, and hadn't been able to release her sadness until her reiki session. That's what convinced me that there must be something to this. My experience wasn't as extreme but still life-changing. For several days after my first reiki session I was able to deal with stress so much better than usual. I felt strong, energetically or spiritually protected from any negative outside influence... things I'd never felt before. My intuition told me this is something I must study, and so I am.
I agree with you that reiki does attract a lot of charlatans and New Agey airheads. That's why I researched the teachers in my area so carefully. I found a humble and intelligent woman who practices and teaches out of her home, and her fees are the lowest I've seen in my area. (As opposed to going to a $300 class in a shop where they're going to try and sell you a bunch of crystals afterwards.) My teacher is able to show her lineage and stays within the traditional Japanese guidelines of teaching and giving reiki.
I know someone who is a spiritual counselor who experienced a kundalini awakening some years back, and I've been talking with her about my own awakening since I began working with reiki. I'm looking forward to seeing where this journey takes me.

 

[Shimmerchasm]

I want to add, I definitely don't think it's as simple as going through the attunement process and then suddenly you're able to zap people into a perfect state of well-being just by touching them. It's something that a person is already sort of tapped into. The attunement just opens up the channel, or it helps the student to will it open, perhaps. I think it's more symbolic than literal. That's just my feeling, anyway.

 

[Ransom itch]

My understanding of reiki along with almost all other alternative paths to health is that gradually the philosophy leads people to believe they themselves hold the keys to health happiness and their own destiny. I believe God (external to ourselves) loves us very much and who created us and who sent His Son Jesus to die on a cross for our sins who can lead us to true fulfilment. If we turn inwards for guidance, we only lose ourselves in our own darkness.